Profiles: Chris Messina Talks Mindy Kaling and The Newsroom

With credits in more than 20 films, Chris Messina is not what you’d call an unknown entity. His memorable turns in Julie & Julia, Away We Go, and Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona established his as a recognizable face, but this fall, we’ll see Messina in a series of roles—in TV, film, comedies and dramas alike—that will finally demonstrate his range. Between playing Bryan Cranston’s lackey in Ben Affleck’s much-anticipated Argo,Jane Fonda’s Oedipally hung-up son Reese Lansing on Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom, and Dr. Danny Castellano, the brutally honest object of Mindy Kaling’s flirtation in her new Fox sitcom The Mindy Project, which debuted to favorable reviews last night, Messina has no shortage of work on his plate. Indeed, with the 38-year-old father of two heading from one set to another multiple times a week, one only worries that he’ll start to confuse his lines. On the eve of The Mindy Project premiere, Messina spoke to Vogue about balancing all of his latest projects.

How did you meet Mindy Kaling?The first time we met was actually at Mindy’s house to discuss the show. John Krasinski set us up, and I thought her script was so funny, without any of the shtick you usually find in comedy pilots. B.J. Novak was there, too. I grew up worshipping Pacino, Hoffman, De Niro, so when I made the decision to do a Fox sitcom, it was kind of like, What’s happening to the big plan? But this is the golden age of television. I’m lucky to have projects like Argo—thank God they’re still around!—but shows like Boardwalk [Empire], Breaking Bad, Boss, Modern Family, and The Office are all incredibly special. The Mindy Project, for me, combined those two kinds of projects. It’s not The Deer Hunter, but it has a lot of heart. It actually reminds me a lot of Taxi.Most of the shows you’ve done in the past were dramas. Was it difficult to find your comedic voice?Yes! I was also nervous about that. Comedy’s super hard and it doesn’t come as easily to me. The trick is to find what’s funny about the script and then just be truthful. I watch Mindy and copy her; she’s one of the best improvisational actors I’ve ever worked with. We riff back and forth, playing with the lines, and we always end up laughing. The best comedy is [when the lines are] thrown away. That’s when it’s right. The Newsroom, on the other hand, is like doing a play. You can’t miss an article in a sentence without the script supervisor stopping you!

Now that The Newsroom is about to start filming the second season, how do you plan to balance it with your work on The Mindy Project?Well I’ve done it before, since at one point I was filming Damages, The Newsroom, and the Mindy pilot all at the same time. But I’m not sure how it will work, exactly, because the roles definitely require different muscles. To go back and forth, filming both at the same time, will be tiring and stressful, but I love each character. The trick is in preparation; you have to do your homework. The characters are actually a little similar in that both are lonely, but they play their loneliness so differently. Danny [on The Mindy Project] is divorced, his father left early, and he chooses to spend a lot of time alone. I think he has a broken heart. And Reese [on The Newsroom], although we’ve never delved into his personal life, has probably never found love. He also has a profoundly strange relationship with his mother.

Do you have any idea how either character is going to develop?I couldn’t tell you even if I knew! But the best part about TV is that it’s ever-changing. Sorkin is a genius, and Mindy has some incredible ideas for what should happen. Her show keeps getting better and better with every episode, but I actually haven’t seen any of them fully edited. Just the pilot! It’s actually a very cool time to be talking to you, because after the premiere, it all becomes a different thing. We could talk again in four weeks and it may be a very different situation.